Census 1921

News update from 'Find My Past'.

Great stuff, I'd nearly forgotten about that! Hopefully in the New Year I'll be able to find time to start up our family tree research again.

But have you noticed the cost. £2.50 each for a transcript or £3.50 for an original record! OK if you just want to look at a couple of records but could soon mount up if you need to search.

Oh my word, I hadn't noticed that! Very disappointing - I'd assumed that after paying a hundred and something pounds for a year's subscription, all the censuses would be included in the price, like previous ones. Oh well, as I have our main branch back to the 1500s, it'll be of limited use apart from verifying a few more "recent" details.

Very disappointing, Rob? I'm afraid my response was laced with more colourful language!! I appreciate there is a genuine agrument to the funding of such digital projects, but both Ancestry and Find My Past have, effectively, been given a monolopy on the cash cow of family history research - and the 1921 Census must be a jewel in the crown as far as guaranteeing revenue streams for Find My Past?! I certainly agree that a three-figure subscription should be adequate to access transcriptions - and that, maybe, there is a case for making a modest charge for more detailed results, even if I don't personally subscribe to that view? Annewiggy's point is probably shared by many. I, for one, have numerous branches of my family tree which I had hoped to explore further with the release of the 1921 Census. At these rates, the cost of such will run into hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds - no thank you. As far as I am concerned, the Census records are a central part of our social history, and I am a firm believer that the general public should have access to these records with no, or minimal, cost. Learning more about who you are and where you have come from leads to a hunger to learn more about social conditions of those times and a greater appreciation of the living standards we enjoy today - be that housing, work, health etc. In some respects, it could be argued that these records should be publically funded? Yes, Rob, very disappointing... I'll leave it there!

It's a very short sighted position for them to take. People get hooked into ancestry hunting and this extra cost may dissuade people from starting. It's also the rung people are most likely to skip over anyway as they have that level from their own family's records or memories.

Hi all, I was involved in ancestry searching before the days of internet. Records on micro film, where a time slot at the local records office had to be booked in advance, for a seat at a reading machine. Yes, it was free, but what a palaver. Any paper documents were very expensive, £6.50 for a copy birth or death cert. That dosh in 1980, about the equivalent of £14 now in real terms. Plus the stamped return postage, including proof of identity & reason for the request. I can see it all now, as I trolled through church burial records in Hampton, Northamptonshire, the cost of getting there, plus gratitude to the vicar, maybe a lunch at the local pub, in fact usually a whole day out. Them wert days.

Yes, Philip I started in the early 1980's I did enjoy going to the record offices and looking through the old documents. Everything took a time then as it was all done by snail mail but it was exciting, waiting for the post. I did find the Mormon records an amazing source of information and they still do it free on Family Search. I was very lucky that for a present one year, I sent for myself complete sets of microfiche for Warwickshire, Staffordshire and other surrounding areas which have all names, mostly births and marriages and a second hand microfiche reader (which I am happy to search for anyone if you know which county you are looking at). I think when Find My Past first brought out the 1911 census they charged but both they and Ancestry have it for free now so I suppose eventually they will do the same for this one. As Rob says at the moment it would not be any help in my research but it would have been nice to look up my grandparents to see if there was any more information on them. Yes, Phil, them was the days, but I still enjoy doing it.

Just to add, Anne, that the 1939 Register went the same way - initially it had to be paid for, now it's included (although I guess an increase in the annual subscription has paid for it!). I too purchased a second hand fiche reader, to use with various fiche I bought. Philip, I too remember the 'old days' of research - I used to book a seat in the Register Office in Crewe, drive the 70 odd miles there, find what I thought I needed from an index book, wait for the registrar to confirm that it was what I wanted, and then pay the money and wait for a copy of the certificate. Must have cost a fortune, I bought so many! And when we lived on the south coast, I used to get the train to Victoria, then the 38 bus (Clapton Pond!) to Myddleton Street, and spend hours either looking through the big, heavy BMD indexes - filling in the coloured forms for copy certificates - or searching through rolls of census microfilms and scribbling down what I found! Happy (?) days

Dear All, Some of you may have seen the announcement about the launch of the 1921 census which has been digitised and will be made available through Find My Past. This will be the only source of availability as a microfilm version has not been created. We currently have free access to all records and transcriptions available on Find My Past through a Library subscription. However this will not be the case with the 1921 census. More details are available here on the Find My Past website. The cost for access will therefore be £2.50 for every record transcript and £3.50 for every original record image. For all 12-month Pro subscribers, there will be a 10% discount on any 1921 Census purchases. Find My Past/National Archives are charging for access in order to cover the cost of digitising and transcribing the 18,235,242 images created from the records. We have been informed by Find My Past that at some point it will become part of the Library subscription but that date has not been announced as yet. I know that this will be disappointing for some of you but regretfully this decision is not of our making. Once Find My Past/National Archives do announce the date that the 1921 Census becomes part of the Library subscription then we shall update you all. With best wishes, Victoria Northridge Archives Manager Post copied from topic Coventry Archives on 7th Apr 2022 4:34 pm

Dear All, Some of you may have seen the announcement about the launch of the 1921 census which has been digitised and will be made available through Find My Past. This will be the only source of availability as a microfilm version has not been created. We currently have free access to all records and transcriptions available on Find My Past through a Library subscription. However this will not be the case with the 1921 census. More details are available here on the Find My Past website. The cost for access will therefore be £2.50 for every record transcript and £3.50 for every original record image. For all 12-month Pro subscribers, there will be a 10% discount on any 1921 Census purchases. Find My Past/National Archives are charging for access in order to cover the cost of digitising and transcribing the 18,235,242 images created from the records. We have been informed by Find My Past that at some point it will become part of the Library subscription but that date has not been announced as yet. I know that this will be disappointing for some of you but regretfully this decision is not of our making. Once Find My Past/National Archives do announce the date that the 1921 Census becomes part of the Library subscription then we shall update you all. With best wishes, Victoria Northridge Archives Manager Post copied from topic Coventry Archives on 3rd Nov 2021 12:59 pm

Dear All, There has been a recent update from National Archives on access to the 1921 census as follows: Today The UK National Archives can announce two regional hubs that will provide free online access to the 1921 Census of England and Wales from 6 January 2022. The census will be available online via our commercial partner Findmypast and will be free to access in digital format onsite at The National Archives, in Kew. In addition, visitors to the Manchester Central Library and the National Library of Wales will be able to access the 1921 Census of England and Wales via the Findmypast website for free following its publication next year. Dr Valerie Johnson, Director of Research and Collections at The National Archives, said: "We understand the excitement and anticipation of this release and, by making the census available online, we are hugely increasing its accessibility. These hubs will offer an important alternative to those not able to log on from home. Without commercial partnerships of this kind, and the associated charges, the alternative for everyone would be to work through the papers themselves at The National Archives". Read our full news story to find out more: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/regional-hubs-to-offer-free-online-access-to-1921-census/ Kind regards, Jonathan Ladd I know that it's still not ideal but it's slightly better than no free access. With best wishes, Victoria

As a side effect of the digitisation and publication of the 1921 census, it gives us a brief insight into the mood of the population at that period. The census forms had lots of blank space that attracted unsolicited comments. You may have seen in the press the kind of comments that respondents posted, many decrying the cost of the whole exercise when the country was still in a poor state so soon after the war and the 1918 pandemic. One gentleman actually drew a cartoon depicting a group of officials congratulating themselves on having obtained the list of names to be used as cannon fodder in the next war starting in 1936. A particularly remarkable prediction. The tragedy though is that the man's son who was listed as one year old on the census form, was killed in the war he prophesied. As to the quality of the digitisation process, it is disappointing. I tried a test sample search of the Scottish surname McSporran to see how many were living in England or Wales. There were ten listed but at least eight had one or more errors. The name was either wrong, it should have been recorded as the Irish name McSparron or the birthplace was wrong, transcribed as London, England instead of Londonderry, Ireland. A minuscule sample from a massive project I know, but I give them a mark of 2/10. You can join findmypast.co.uk and do basic searches for free.

1921 CENSUS. Any advice on where to search next would be appreciated. My great grandparents had 13 children, one who died in infancy and another who died in the Great War. The remaining 11 can all be found at various Coventry addresses on the 1911 census. I searched the 1921 census but could only find the eldest 4 [all of whom were now married with families] and an 18-year-old son who was in the army. This left 6 children, aged 12, 14, 16, 22, 24 & 26, who I could not locate. I purchased the 1921 census records for the 4 older siblings to see if any of the younger ones were living with them but none were. The children's mother had died in 1917 and the father had been in Warwick Mental Hospital at Hatton [1919-1922] including the time of the census. I suppose they could have been living with their older siblings and not included on the census forms but find this a little doubtful for all 6. Can't understand why I cannot find a single one of them. If some were in the Workhouse, especially the 12, 14 & 16-year-olds, they would still have been listed on the census surely. Any ideas. Cheers in advance.

I may have misunderstood but: were those not found on the 1921 Census still alive?